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Biotech / Medical : Ebola Outbreak 2014 - News, Updates and Related Investments
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From: IRWIN JAMES FRANKEL10/7/2014 9:28:53 AM
   of 608
 
Another onerous factor:

Some May Carry Ebola Without Showing Any Symptoms

Is the “Conventional Wisdom” All Wrong?

washingtonsblog.com

Quote:The New York Times reported in 2000:

The Ebola virus, which has caused deaths from high fever and bleeding in African outbreaks, can also infect without producing illness, according to a new finding by African and European scientists.

The possibility of asymptomatic infection was only suggested in earlier studies, they said in last week’s issue of The Lancet, a medical journal published in London. Now they said they had documented such infections for the first time. They found that the Ebola virus could persist in the blood of asymptomatic infected individuals for two weeks after they were first exposed to an infected individual. How much longer the virus can persist is unknown.

***

If people can be carriers without showing symptoms, it means control might be more difficult.

“This degree of containment would be virtually impossible if symptom-free carriers posed a significant threat of infection,” Dr. Alan G. Baxter of Newtown, Australia, wrote in an editorial in the same issue of The Lancet.

The Lancet study does not warn of an apocalyptic scenario where any casual contact could cause infection. It is more focused on contagion through sex or blood transfusions.

But Western governments and scientists have repeatedly said that Ebola carriers can only infect others if they are showing symptoms. So they need to adjust their strategies to account for potential contagion from people who aren’t showing any symptoms.

Here is the study published in Lancet.

thelancet.com

And here is the editor’s comment.

thelancet.com
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